Federer beats Copil to claim his ninth Swiss Indoors crown and 99th career title

Roger Federer chalked up his 99th title on the ATP World Tour by making it a remarkable nine wins at the Swiss Indoors Basel on Sunday.

Federer has not been beaten at his home tournament since losing the 2013 final to Juan Martin del Potro and emerged with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 victory over Marius Copil.

Qualifier Copil enjoyed a shock run to just his second ATP final and, despite making Federer work hard at times, saw his campaign run out of steam just short of the finish line.

The early stages did not go to plan for Federer, who saw Copil break serve in only the third game.

To the Nines!

@rogerfederer claims his 9th #SwissIndoorsBasel and 99th career title by defeating Marius Copil 7-6(5) 6-4. pic.twitter.com/kXEJOvClGz

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 28, 2018
That advantage was swiftly cancelled out, however, when Copil failed to execute an ambitious drop shot, forcing the set to a tie-break.

A wonderful forehand sealed the opener for the home favourite, who was again forced to come from behind in the second.

Federer fell 3-0 down as qualifier Copil, who saw off the likes of Alexander Zverev and Marin Cilic earlier in the week, hit his stride.

But a run of five consecutive games for Federer maintained the world number three’s spectacular run in this competition.